"He has the potential to win a monument" - Neilson Powless facing a race against time to be fit for Tour of Flanders

One of the big Classics hopes for EF Education-EasyPost this year, Neilson Powless has seen his campaign battered by illness and injury so far.

After missing Milano-Sanremo last weekend, the American is now facing a race against time to be fit for the Tour of Flanders. "It’s tough to have the question over Neilson right now. He’s one of our important riders for the cobbled races,” team sport director Sebastian Langeveld explains to Velo. “When he’s good like last year at Flanders, he’s among the favorites like Van Aert or Van der Poel, and that was just his first time at that race. The did similar the year before when he was riding the final at Liège."

Clearly there is a big within EF Education-EasyPost when it comes to Powless' race winning capabilities. “The future for Neilson is huge. We believe in it and so does he," Langeveld outlines. “We just have to hope he’ll make a fast progression. We’ve seen before he has the potential to win a monument with his endurance, positioning, and power. He’s a big part of the spring for us.”

“There aren’t many riders out there that can handle the final of a monument with the distance and the stress. Neilson showed he’s got that when he did finals of the Leuven worlds, Liège, and Flanders,” Langeveld concludes. “He definitely got it in him, so he can have healthy ambitions in the biggest classics – if not this spring, then in the near future.”